Go to page

Luna Crescens

Everyone just love Nephrite. He is like the best of them for me personally...plus me and my friend like to joke about Queen B calling his name all the time just to be annoying. As regarding the anime. I really think this director wanted to do something with it but I bet the execs were like...yeah ummm how much can we get from this. Lets see if the Moon base are brain dead and will buy whatever we put out.

Luna

I think the director lacked experience, handling a whole series, as he previously directed episodes. Then there were tecnical restrictions. This is pure speculation, but I guess he was comissioned to do 2 story arcs in 26 episodes slot, which would significantly change director's choices. And yet, someone with more experience would have used these 26 episodes better. Chiaki Kohn delivered a better structured Season 3, because the designs were simplified and easier to work with. Munehisa Sakai choose designs the budget couldn't support and everythig resulted in strange animation direction of jarring zoomed in shots, off model characters etc. I don't know if he is the one to blame for the bad subplot with the generals and the changes regarding Beryl's death, but it is partially a problem with the script writer as well. Overall Ican imagine he started enthusiastically as anewbie, unrealizing the time and budget restrained, couldn't maage the budget efficently. With Season 3 they fixed that, but for the expense of originality, unique look and the show became too much of loli fest for my personal taste. But Season 3 chose the obvious, lower risk path and was received better, but some might see it as generic and less ambitious.

Luna Crescens

I think the fan film is actually pretty good I did think it was a pretty decent fan film. I do wonder if we will see the other Shitennou like for instance will Jadeite, Zoisite and Kunzite appear. I do wonder whether they will make Zoisite female like in the 90s dub or male like in the original.

Yuji Kobayashi (who also worked on Suite Precure which had terrible writing) is to blame for that, he said this:

We know how it is going to end.” I’m borrowing the words from Producer Umezawa here. The previous anime was produced almost simultaneously with the manga and even the staff working on it didn’t know for sure which direction it was going to head towards.​

​

This time the original work is already completed. We already know about all the settings, the ending and the revelation. We are given an advantage because we knowing for sure that (the story) ” will turn out like this in the end” and start from the opposite direction.​

​

For example we are able to write everything with a feel of “destiny”, adding memory fragments of the Silver Millennium in the first scene of Act 1, Usagi and Mamoru feeling something during their first encounter. And just like showing at the end of Act 1 that Ami will appear in Act 2, we added scenes that led to the next episode in the end of each one. Takeuchi-sensei has also done so in her work, it’s also integrated in episodes where there was a cliffhanger. What kind of relationship this leads to, what will happen next…we were able to plant in hints like those because we already know the answer.​

​

Also, it was decided that the current anime will be based on the manga. The number of episodes will also follow the original work, making it a “dense” story. On the flip side, we are already having our hands full by depicting the main story. The previous anime aired weekly and did not have the original story in stock. Fillers were added between each chapter, which featured more about each character and stories about their daily lives. The five went out together and had many experiences…However, we don’t have that kind of space to add in episodes that end within one act. Instead, we are seeking to strengthen the characters that are featured in each episode by fleshing out their connections and dialogues. When reading the original work in manga format, the reader can decide and adjust their own pace. For example, if there is a scene where a new character appears, or a part where the characters were interaction it’s very easy (for a reader) to slow down, or go back, but the viewer can’t control the flow of time in animation, which is an audiovisual medium. Even if we are to follow the manga exactly as it is there will be circumstances that will not leave any impressions. If we want to have the viewer’s focus on a specific character or emotion, a certain amount of exaggerations are a must. Therefore, we are paying specific amount of attention towards the connections between each character this time and strengthened the way they encountered or their dialogues in their respective episodes.​

​

Moreover, we have made vast changes in how the Shittenou are treated this time. You know, in the manga they were quickly defeated after they made their debut. Many big fans of the manga or the musicals may already know, the four were deeply involved with the 4 Senshi in their past lives. From the standpoint of already knowing the end, this can’t be separated from the story’s “worldview” (general setting). If they are just wiped out in split seconds, it would be difficult to make the Guardians except for Usagi to stand out (in the story). If there was enough space regarding the number of episodes, I wanted to write the episodes of the interactions between each other in their past lives. But I tried to do what I could to flesh out (this concept) here and there so please look forward to it in future acts. By the way, the Shittenou were named after minerals and gemstones, which have their meanings just like flower languages. Each type of gemstone has many symbolisms attached to them, some are referenced in the portrayals of the Shittenou in their past lives. I would be happy if people would notice.​

Basically, besides once again listing off bad excuses as to why Crystal season 1 was so bad, he had no idea how to characterize the girls properly, his way of "fleshing them out" was giving them bland love interests, four of whom did get wiped out in split seconds.

Luna Crescens

When reading the original work in manga format, the reader can decide and adjust their own pace. For example, if there is a scene where a new character appears, or a part where the characters were interaction it’s very easy (for a reader) to slow down, or go back, but the viewer can’t control the flow of time in animation, which is an audiovisual medium.

Unfortunately they made a lot of bad decisions and I think it all started with using the manga 1:1 as a storyboard. if you're a good writer, you can make the 26 acts fit into 26 episodes. I even think, if you are a really good writer, you can squeeze each arc into a movie. Of course, you would have to leave out a lot of stuff and tell some parts in a very concentrated way, but I believe it's possible. And we'll see with the dream arc movies how (or if) it works. Maybe TOEI noticed that this was one of the main critiques so they decided to go with the movies. I don't remember exactly the plot of the dream arc and I don't know if the choice of splitting it into 2 was wise, but I'm an optimist.

The Dark Kingdom arc as a movie could start with Moon, Mars and Mercury already teamed up together and retelling how they met in flashback scenes. In good superhero movies, like X-men, we also don't see every detail about the characters on screen, but we can still build a connection with them, based on how they get introduced to the audience. And SM-fans anyway know already who the characters are.
So I would give the movie in 3-part-structure and the first could begin with some action at the masquerade ball where the sailors fight the possessed princess and Nephrite. Then we get some introduction/exposition as the next day we see Usagi running to school being super late, and here we get a proper introduction to her and the story: we get some flashbacks of how Usagi met Luna and became SM and how she met the two other senshi and how they killed some Youma and Jedite. Then she almost gets hit by a car but Makoto rescueing her. At school we get to know Ami and maybe Luna, and also Makoto, following the act 5. By the end of part 1 Makoto becomes Sailor Jupiter (I think it's important to show one of those moments when a senshi gets born, but there's no need to see it 4 times) and Moon gets her new wand (climax 1). Part 2/3 combines the acts around Mamoru/Tuxedo Mask and by the end of it we would be meeting Sailor V(enus) combined with the revelation on the Moon princess and the kidnapping of Mamoru by Queen Beryl (climax 2 and plot twist). Then they go to the Moon and learn about their past. And as they come back to earth already starts the plot around the final battle vs. Metallia (climax 3/crisis/resolution). Since I'm not a fan of the senshi x shitennou romance I anyway think they should be treated as Youmas and maybe have a human and a monster/youma appereance.

I'm not the BEST writer and this is almost the most obvious way to treat the material to fit into a movie. But I think it would work. Actually, it's pretty fun to think about the narrative structure of a SM movie. It's kinda off-topic, so we could open a new thread and talk about it! What do you guys think?

Luna Crescens

When reading the original work in manga format, the reader can decide and adjust their own pace. For example, if there is a scene where a new character appears, or a part where the characters were interaction it’s very easy (for a reader) to slow down, or go back, but the viewer can’t control the flow of time in animation, which is an audiovisual medium.

Unfortunately they made a lot of bad decisions and I think it all started with using the manga 1:1 as a storyboard. if you're a good writer, you can make the 26 acts fit into 26 episodes. I even think, if you are a really good writer, you can squeeze each arc into a movie. Of course, you would have to leave out a lot of stuff and tell some parts in a very concentrated way, but I believe it's possible. And we'll see with the dream arc movies how (or if) it works. Maybe TOEI noticed that this was one of the main critiques so they decided to go with the movies. I don't remember exactly the plot of the dream arc and I don't know if the choice of splitting it into 2 was wise, but I'm an optimist.

The Dark Kingdom arc as a movie could start with Moon, Mars and Mercury already teamed up together and retelling how they met in flashback scenes. In good superhero movies, like X-men, we also don't see every detail about the characters on screen, but we can still build a connection with them, based on how they get introduced to the audience. And SM-fans anyway know already who the characters are.
So I would give the movie in 3-part-structure and the first could begin with some action at the masquerade ball where the sailors fight the possessed princess and Nephrite. Then we get some introduction/exposition as the next day we see Usagi running to school being super late, and here we get a proper introduction to her and the story: we get some flashbacks of how Usagi met Luna and became SM and how she met the two other senshi and how they killed some Youma and Jedite. Then she almost gets hit by a car but Makoto rescueing her. At school we get to know Ami and maybe Luna, and also Makoto, following the act 5. By the end of part 1 Makoto becomes Sailor Jupiter (I think it's important to show one of those moments when a senshi gets born, but there's no need to see it 4 times) and Moon gets her new wand (climax 1). Part 2/3 combines the acts around Mamoru/Tuxedo Mask and by the end of it we would be meeting Sailor V(enus) combined with the revelation on the Moon princess and the kidnapping of Mamoru by Queen Beryl (climax 2 and plot twist). Then they go to the Moon and learn about their past. And as they come back to earth already starts the plot around the final battle vs. Metallia (climax 3/crisis/resolution). Since I'm not a fan of the senshi x shitennou romance I anyway think they should be treated as Youmas and maybe have a human and a monster/youma appereance.

I'm not the BEST writer and this is almost the most obvious way to treat the material to fit into a movie. But I think it would work. Actually, it's pretty fun to think about the narrative structure of a SM movie. It's kinda off-topic, so we could open a new thread and talk about it! What do you guys think?

Luna Crescens

Wait...so that was his idea of fleshing the girls out??? I slightly worried if he has to write the movie. For one, I know Crystal Rei is liked but she is not my favorite. I don't hate her but she just seems so bland.

The best bits I remember from her we're in Jupiter's episode when she talked about not needing men and then later sobbing over Jadeite. I guess this was supposed to be something to make girls get happy? Mars should have lit him up in the manga. The musical actually handled them better. Instead of Mercury and Zoisite, it should have been Venus and Kunzite.

Now I'm not saying writing is easy or anything but there's gotta be a little life left in the Inners. They all cry at the same time, run at the same time, swoon at the same time, get knocked down at the same time, have boyfriends at the same time.

If you're going to do something like a 4 kingdom love triangle then those one or two flimsy episodes won't do. I remember when they all ran after the Kings after they died and I was like....They didn't even do that in the 90s...What is this? At least Mars' ain't...what the..?? All of them are running and crying.
Even though I'm slightly concerned about the writer, I think Ms. Kon proved she can make a cohesive series of events take shape.

Yes, because they decided to stick much closer to the manga ad nobody let him do his thing again. Still, he did make some bad writing decisions. Small stuff in comparison, but still the devil is in the detail. The moment he was annouced way back in the day, a friend of mie told me the guy ruined Saint Seiya Omega, and got a lot of hate at the time. The idea to flesh out the girls through forced love interest, is just stupid and opened so many plot holes, making the friendship between the girls unbeliveable to me. I will mention a plot hole first. In episode 10 the girls fought the generals, knowing they were brainwashed. Usagi was there and helped. Yet on the very next episode everyone had amnesia, being clueless what is going with Endo/Mamoru. And Usagi stupidly saying "you are not Tuxedo Masko" because, oh well, I haven't seen 4 guys being braiwashed just a week ago. Then the death of the generals was cringy, but something else made me crige even more. So suddenly all of them lost their loved one, but Usagi had to keep hers at all cost. It felt once more that anyone but Usagi matters, their loss is not important, they have no right to keep whoever they love, but Usagi always does. And they cannot be their own people. Usagi's struggle with Mamoru just inforced the impression the rest are all cyborgs, programmed to provide for the princess, without having any personality and interest of their own. They even had to fell in love the same way she did in the past, despite their supposed personality differences. This is not fleshing but but further bashing on their personalities. Flesh them out by not taking Rei's family out of the picture, let Ami to ise more of her brains, let Minako kill Beryl, show all this build up anger, guilt and doubt of her leadership and let it manifest, don't forget that Makoto is strong and reference it here and there...
Venus and Kunzite were the only pairings I can see work. They were commanders of two civilizations at war, both of them were prideful and dedicated, so with a few flashbacks they could have been fleshed out. Their initial guilt loving each other, the hope the war might stub and their love might be possible, then shatter it with the final battle in the past. But no...

Luna Crescens

The whole "based on the manga" thing sounds more like an excuse. they had a small budget for the series so they went with the the simpliest solutions. and even though i like the music, it often sounds quite generic. the high quality they aimed for to please adult anime fans (lol) I only see in the work of the voice actresses...and in those few scenes of act 25 (lol).

season 3 did a better job, but this time the character design was hard to swallow (those bubbles, those headshapes).

Luna Crescens

I think the two thing SMC3 did better was the plot (But it was not the credit of the writer, he just copied from manga. So we could say it was manga which had a better story in the third arc.) The second one was the character movement.

Episodes 1-51 - Directed by Morio Hatano with Yoshihiko Umakoshi as designer and Reiko Yoshida as head writer
Episodes 52-97 - Directed by Tatsuya Nagamine & Kohei Kureta (co-directed 73-98 when Nagamine started working on the also terrible Happiness Charge Precure) with Keiichi Ichikawa as designer and Yoshimi Narita as head writer

Yuji Kobayashi only wrote 10 episodes of Omega but it was only during that season and under a different group of people.

As for Suite Precure, that was a victim of a real-life tragedy with that year's tsunami so they were forced to rewrite the show (similar to Ohranger after the 95 gas attacks and Gokaiger after that same tsunami) but he only wrote 6 episodes so he is hardly to blame for what happened there.

Luna Crescens

Wait...so that was his idea of fleshing the girls out??? I slightly worried if he has to write the movie. For one, I know Crystal Rei is liked but she is not my favorite. I don't hate her but she just seems so bland.

The best bits I remember from her we're in Jupiter's episode when she talked about not needing men and then later sobbing over Jadeite. I guess this was supposed to be something to make girls get happy? Mars should have lit him up in the manga. The musical actually handled them better. Instead of Mercury and Zoisite, it should have been Venus and Kunzite.

Now I'm not saying writing is easy or anything but there's gotta be a little life left in the Inners. They all cry at the same time, run at the same time, swoon at the same time, get knocked down at the same time, have boyfriends at the same time.

If you're going to do something like a 4 kingdom love triangle then those one or two flimsy episodes won't do. I remember when they all ran after the Kings after they died and I was like....They didn't even do that in the 90s...What is this? At least Mars' ain't...what the..?? All of them are running and crying.
Even though I'm slightly concerned about the writer, I think Ms. Kon proved she can make a cohesive series of events take shape.

My thoughts on Crystal Rei/Sailor Mars, well to quote this person's thoughts on a character of Tobias from Animorphs, well, I say to Kobayashi: In your series Sailor Mars/Rei started off as a complete stranger to the entire group and she remained distant and quiet the rest of the time. I mean pul-lease. There’s enough complication in her life without totally depriving her of a personality. She wasn’t a close friend of Usagi at first in the manga but she liked Ami, and her relationship with the girls slowly improved throughout the manga. She might have lost her mother, had a bad father and had a hard life, but she wasn’t all that miserable, quiet and secretive. She was friendly and helpful and completely trustworthy. I don’t know what you think you’re going to accomplish with the Sailor Mars you’ve got. It doesn’t look like there’s any hope for her. I have no feelings for her. No sympathy, no admiration, nothing. She’s just not enough of a character.

And how Kobayashi handled the Shitennou; that doesn’t make any sense at all, as he's the SCREENWRITER. And he edited the story, and made it a pointless shot by shot sequence of the manga, he doesn't have any idea what he's talking about...

I hope he doesn't write the movie, as he'd screw it up royally and probably destroy what character development the Inners got there. I also heard Munehisa Sakai (who thankfully left Toei after the second season ended along with Yukie Sato, sorry, but I can't stand her artwork, Masami Obari could draw them better and his artwork sucks, he'd probably give them, sans Chibi Moon and Saturn, titties the size of pumpkins!!!) also couldn't take criticism and blocked people on his Twitter who criticized Crystal.

As for Suite Precure, that was a victim of a real-life tragedy with that year's tsunami so they were forced to rewrite the show (similar to Ohranger after the 95 gas attacks and Gokaiger after that same tsunami) but he only wrote 6 episodes so he is hardly to blame for what happened there.

That's why Suite was like that...I wonder if that's the reason SuperS ended up like it did too (though even then and there that had disturbing implications and vibes), considering it and Ohranger were released in 1995.

Luna Crescens

Yukie Sakou's not my favorite character designer, I do not like how she drew the eyes. I would have preferred Keiko Iwata as designer.

EDIT #1: I want to say that even though I don't like Yuki Sako's character designs to a miniscule degree, Akira Takahashi's designs weren't that much better, either. I think that the two designers have their high and lows when it comes to how the characters are drawn. While Yuki made everyone look tall & lanky, I appreciate her hair highlights and noses. I also like the Inners have their bangs/fringe split to show the tiaras (minus Moon, whose bangs were always divided).

I still prefer Naoko's art, though.

Last edited: Feb 2, 2019

"Dreams are hopeless aspirations in hopes of coming true, believe in yourself, the rest is up to me and you"July is Chibi Chibi Month!